The fungus Fusarium solani is a well-known source for many bioactive molecules including terpenoids, aromatic compounds, peptides and proteins (Mall, O. P. and S. K. Chauhan, International Bioscience Series 15, 1990), Haymecins A-C toxic to microalgae (Chen et al., Halymecins, 44:10, 1996). Trichothecenes and Zearalenone the well known mycotoxins (Ureno, et al., 3: 1977), gibberellins, the plant growth hormones (Dilip et al., Hand book of Applied mycology: Fungal Biotechnology, 4: (1992), cyclosporin A and C having strong antifungal activity against plant pathogenic fungi (Smawi, et al., Agric. Biol. Chem. 45: 5, 1981) are a few such examples.
Cyclosporins are cyclic oligopeptides exclusively produced by fungi belonging to the genus Tolypocladium, Cylindrocarpon and Fusarium spp. They were first reported from; Cylondrocarpon lucidum (Booth) and Tolypocladium inflatum (grams), two fungi from USA and Norway, respectively. Apart from being strong fungicides, these compounds also exhibnit antiparasdtitic (J. Weiser and V. Matha. J. Inver. Pathol. 51, 1988) anti-inflammatory (C. R. Stiller and G. Opelz. Transplant Proc. 23, 1991) and immunosuppressive (Z. Rahacek and Z. DeXiu. Process Biochem. 26, 1991) properties. In all, nine cyclosporin analogues viz, cyclosporine A-I are presently known. Among these, the immunosuppressive activity of cyclosporin A is very promising and is widely being used clinically after kidney and other organ transplant surgeries. Cyclosporin A is presently produced by mass culture of fungal strains. Two major problems faced by mycologists and chemists in this endeavor are:    1. Optimizing the yield and improving the selectivity in the production of cyclosporin A.    2. Simplifying the purification procedure.
Industrial production of cyclosporin A involves submerged culture of the fungus, extraction from the fungal mass using methanol/acetone and purification of the extracts using partition/ion exchange chromatography.